Small Victories
by Spring Zephyr
Summary: After their disappointing Plug Match results, Ran and Anaak make one last attempt at determining who's better on the Archimedes (canon compliant).


**Uploading this story I wrote months(?) ago thanks to the one panel flashback in Season 2 Chapter 122. Anyway, because this was written so long ago and I only skimmed it before uploading, I get the feeling that I forgot something... but I guess this is a shippy story if you squint?! If you consider teasing "shippy", lol. I tried to be as canon compliant as possible.  
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**Uh, I also decided to follow Underdog's lead and try writing fanfiction using spellings from the official translation. The fan spellings are more popular with a lot of people, I know, but I thought it would be less confusing this way... (There are also spoilers for the Workshop Battle involved in this story, just in case you didn't know.)**

Even if there hadn't been paparazzi waiting for her in the opposite direction, deciding to follow the annoying blue... deciding to follow _Ran_ hadn't been a difficult choice.

"It seems like he knows you guys," he'd said. Then he'd told her to never mind if she didn't – Ran evidently hadn't learned anything about her from their last fight.

Why would Viole know them? Sure, he'd murdered a friend, but the last time Anaak had seen that friend was on the second Floor. Viole was a Slayer candidate. He didn't have time to follow around random people. There was no way she was just going to let him go after saying such an ominous thing as that.

"Did Viole tell you that?" Anaak questioned, catching up to him in a few easy strides.

"I said it _seemed_ like he knew you." She chose to ignore the tiny sigh she heard following the statement, figuring it was a sign of annoyance or that Ran didn't want to be followed. She pretty much ignored anything that inconvenienced her. "He didn't tell me outright."

"How long have you guys been teammates?"

"I just finished promising your defeat in our next fight, and all you're concerned about is Viole? I have to say, I'm disappointed in you, lizard. You ask too many questions."

As if the blue boy's words weren't annoying enough on their own, the steady monotone he usually spoke in only made it worse. But Anaak had been thinking about that battle ever since she'd woken up. The first thing she'd seen upon regaining consciousness hadn't been the pristine white of the recovery walls or Shibisu's concerned face, but a flash of blue-white lightning that she'd mistaken the ceiling lights for. Jumping out of bed so fast she knocked Shibisu over in the process, Anaak was back on her feet already breathing hard, panicked, and only calmed down once she realized the sound of crackling electricity and the feeling of falling had been imagined. But Anaak had already been able to recall blacking out once under these circumstances during the plug matches. That memory had somehow remained crystal clear.

Maybe Ran hadn't been able to shake her confidence the way he'd intended, but he had forced Anaak to face the reality of losing. Between that and the fact that she'd woken up at all, from what could've ended up a fatal attack, Anaak was temporarily out of snarky retorts. It was starting to look like Ran would've preferred otherwise though.

"The idea's so ridiculous I didn't feel the need to comment," Anaak declared, putting as much arrogance as she could manage without sounding exaggerated into her voice. "First of all, you were going to try and fight me at close range. I wouldn't lose to you in terms of physical strength even if I were dead."

It was only because she'd come so close to actually being dead that she could make that assertion in the first place. Anaak half-expected Ran to make a comment of his own, but when he didn't she continued.

"Second, you'll be the loser in our next fight. You're going to run out of party tricks sooner or later, and I'm not going to fall for any of them twice."

Anaak noticed that he was lagging slightly behind her when they walked now. The Archimedes was huge. She'd assumed their rooms were in the same direction at first, but now Anaak realized he was probably following her instead.

"Better than you," Ran finally spoke up again. "You don't have any tricks at all."

"Tch."

She hadn't even needed any tricks to fight on equal grounds with Ran so far.

"If I hadn't held back on my first punch, that fight would've been over before you even had a chance to swallow that stupid pill. You would've looked really pathetic, in front of all those people-"

"You're really annoying."

"Same to you."

Fighting with Endorsi all these years had been good for something after all. It was obvious that Ran wasn't as practiced in the art of verbal arguments and insults as she was.

But Ran didn't hesitate at all with his next reply, leading Anaak to a new found suspicion that maybe he'd planned for it to go like this. "Why don't we settle it here, instead of waiting?"

"You want to have another big fight in the middle of Archi's hallway?" Anaak asked. "For no reason? Hah, I wonder what happened to that 'thinking ahead' you were bragging about earlier? We both know I'd beat you."

Was he really serious though? It was hard to scan ahead when all the rooms' doorways looked the same, aside from the number plate, but she knew her team's block was coming up. And what was she supposed to do with the irritating blue boy then?

"I'll save the actual fighting for another time," Ran replied. "Believe it or not, you're not the most boring opponent I've ever fought. Wouldn't want to overwhelm you while you're weak and injured."

He'd actually dropped his usual monotone. For something a lot snootier.

Anaak grit her teeth and refrained from the urge to punch him out right then and there – that would've definitely shown him better.

"It won't matter because I'll beat you either way, but fine!" Anaak snapped back. "What did you have in mind?"

They were making the final turn now, staring right at her door. There was no going back, whatever Ran had in mind. But what Ran said was so unexpected that it almost made her laugh.

"Arm wrestling."

Just in case he hadn't realized it yet, Anaak refrained from asking if he'd suddenly gone stupid – these blue bastards were sharp, and there was no way she was going to give one an extra edge by pointing out something he'd been too stupid to realize himself. But there was no way Anaak was going to lose at something involving physical strength, not against someone who looked that small and puny, and she tried not to let her confidence show as they walked over to the table and positioned themselves.

Ran's hand was surprisingly smooth, holding it in her own. It was just a handshake hold, but she couldn't feel any of the calluses she would've expected from the so-called prodigy – or maybe they were there, and she just couldn't feel them beneath her own.

Ran was the run to ruin the moment... Whatever that moment had been. "How surprising. For a lizard, you're not as scaly as I thought you'd be."

That was it.

Anaak slammed his hand down against the table so fast he didn't have time to blink. If he hadn't managed to cushion the impact with Shinsu at the last instant, most likely through reflex, she was confident that she could've broken it. How the table had managed to survive the impact was beyond her. It was evident that he relied on Shinsu to strengthen his body even more than Anaak had initially thought too. More good news for her.

"That was cheating," the blue boy grumbled. "Nobody counted to three. Hitting people while they're eating, cheating at a contest – are you rude just because you're a lizard?"

Anaak decided to utilize a mindset she'd learned from Endorsi once – if the blue boy could still complain, then he was fine. Even if he was still really, really annoying.

"Just because you're blue, does that mean you have to whine all the time?"

She actually wasn't very good at the former, but this seemed to be more effective anyway. Judging by the look she got, at least.

"Restart."

"I don't want to now," she could've said, but then that would've made her look like the one who was whining, and she didn't want to give Ran the pleasure of pointing it out. But there was a tiny, sudden suspicion tugging at the back of her mind now – that maybe this had somehow been planned too.

Since Ran was the one who'd been so insistent on a restart, she offered to let him count – if only because she still couldn't shake the feeling that she'd just walked into a trap. If this were only a contest of physical strength, there wasn't a chance Anaak could lose. Especially not to someone like that blue boy. The events of the last couple minutes should've been proof of that – even if Anaak had caught him off-guard, she'd over-powered him in an instant – so he was definitely planning something.

"...Three!"

If she hadn't been so busy thinking, trying to figure out exactly what he was planning, Anaak might have been able to prevent herself from becoming the one caught off-guard this time. Electricity vibrated down her arm, nerves and muscles contracting involuntarily in response. Her arm went numb, and a familiar burning sensation appeared in the palm pressed against the blue boy's, traveling upward as far as her shoulder. Her reflexes weren't any worse than the blue boy's, but the feeling spread too quickly. Trying to reenforce her muscles with Shinsu felt more like trying to force her way through a brick wall instead – except the brick wall probably would've been easier, because it wouldn't have been able to fight back. Although Anaak _felt_ like she was slowly making leeway, there was hardly any evidence to prove it. The slight tremble in Ran's arm could've been imagined, and the expression on his face wasn't changing much from a few minutes ago either.

Standing up for a better angle, Anaak leaned in, placing her weight on that arm and trying to beat the blue boy that way. Raw power. A little bit of tact.

Instead of following her lead, Ran increased the flow of his own Shinsu, which in turn increased the flow and strength of his electricity. _A lot_. The loud _crackling_ noise it made would've covered up the sound of Anaak's surprised yelp, if she'd made one – which she had not. For an instant, the world flashed white again, and Anaak barely registered her hand hitting the table. It was more like an afterthought, if afterthoughts for feelings were even possible.

She snatched her hand back as soon as the blue boy let go, shaking it out and trying to dispel the weird, tingling sensation being electrocuted left behind. It was replaced with a really dull, annoying ache.

"You lose."

"You cheated!"

He didn't make any comments about her crying out though, so thankfully he must not have heard it after all.

"I didn't cheat. It's against the rules to start before a count of three, lizard, but nobody ever said anything about using Shinsu."

"B-but that's...!" Infuriating as it was, Anaak knew she wasn't going to win this argument. Not through words anyway, and she was getting sick of being unable to beat this frustrating blue midget. "Best two out of three! I'm picking the next challenge so you can't cheat, blue bastard!"

What she really wanted was to take off this stupid dress that Shibisu had picked out for her and

try to forget how her face was undoubtedly going to be broadcast all over Archi tomorrow. If there was one good thing about climbing the Tower with Endorsi, it was that normally reporters and photographers were all over her instead. But, no, Endorsi couldn't have made her own plug fight just a little bit flashier, so all the attention had ended up on Anaak and Ran instead.

"I'll make sure to pick a contest you can't cheat at," Anaak growled.

She was so going to get Ran back for that.

#

"Best... one hundred ninety-nine... out of two hundred!"

Neither of them could be satisfied with just a two or three contest lead. Anaak planned on going for ten, and the fact that he hadn't given up yet meant Ran had probably planned on doing the same. The blue boy was as tenacious as ever, in fact. Both were exhausted, stubbornly pretending not to be, and fooling no one.

"Don't you ever get tired...? You idiotic... lizard...?"

The hem of Anaak's dress was torn and she was pretty sure she'd reopened the wound in her side, despite trying to accelerate the healing process with Shinsu, but at least Ran wasn't faring any better. Their stomachs hurt from the eating contest Anaak had forced them into – and the one after that, once she'd realized food was apparently Ran's one true weakness – and they were both out of breath, but Anaak managed to convince herself that Ran was breathing harder. On top of that, they'd somehow managed to lose both his necktie and his hair tie, although Anaak didn't think there was much of a difference where the latter was concerned. His stupid hair was so curly, you could hardly tell it'd been tied back to begin with – it just looked slightly longer now. His jacket was crumpled too, the entire front of his outfit stained dark from a food fight so intense that it was probably never going to wash out from either of their clothes.

Of course, for all they'd managed to do to each other, the room they were currently laying on the floor of was worse off. In another moment, Anaak had caught her breath.

"I'm not quitting until I prove that I'm better than you, blue boy!"

Ran sat up again and glared back at her, as easily goaded as always. "Don't talk like I'm going to just let you-"

The door opened. Probably neither of them would have noticed if not for the person standing in the doorway, yelling at them. "Anaak!"

They both froze, before slowly turning to acknowledge Endorsi. Anaak couldn't account for why she wasn't wearing that fancy party dress she'd bought months ago and bragged about despite _never wearing it until tonight_, but something about the pissed off glint in her eyes and the severe downward curve of her mouth made Anaak not want to comment on it. Or ask what she was doing "home" so early. Or really talk to Endorsi Jahad at all, for that matter.

At her side, Anaak was vaguely aware of Ran scanning their surroundings. Probably letting all the vandalism sink in.

"Uh..."

To be honest, she was too tired to compete with Endorsi also right now. Stupid Endorsi, getting all the easy fights. And in a bikini too...

"Wasn't me," Ran declared suddenly, jumping to his feet and making a mad dash toward the exit.

There was no way Endorsi was going to let him get past her, but Anaak lurched after him anyway, intending to pin him down and beat the snot out of him for even trying to escape.

Except it didn't work out that way.

Ran darted around Endorsi easily – _too easily_ – but the older girl didn't sidestep for Anaak, blocking her way out. And while Anaak normally would've just pushed her aside, or at least tried to, she was already exhausted. Even more frustratingly than that stupid blue boy appearing out of nowhere had been, the impact hadn't even made her budge. She was getting a lot stronger a lot quicker lately, even in the areas where she'd used to be weaker than Anaak at, the undiluted blood of Jahad finally demonstrating its edge.

"Ooow... What was that for?!"

Endorsi glowered at her, but she could somehow tell that there was more than the messy state of their current living quarters bothering her. Something Ran had said flashed in her mind – _"it seems like he knows you guys"_ – but Endorsi answered her before she had time to ponder it further.

"Because I am not going to spend all night in a room this dirty, damn it. Clean this up _now_. Or I'm going to let 'Daddy Shibisu' deal with it, and tell him you had a boy over."

Endorsi's answers weren't always great, but at least she always had one. Except that wasn't exactly great either.

"You-"

"Oh my goody gosh," Endorsi crooned sarcastically, "Dearest Shibisu, I wish I could tell you I knew what happened! But I was out late last night, and when I _finally_ got home, I saw little Anak here-"

"Shut up! Shut up, shut up!"

"-and all alone! Unsupervised! Who knows what they could've been getting up to... She _is_ at that age, after all."

The worst part was, she could actually imagine that happening: Shibisu would say something stupid, like, "My little girl is growing up so fast!", and then she'd be forced to punch him in the gut.

"Daddy was only making a joke..."

And in return, Anaak would have to growl at him, "It was a really bad joke," to hopefully decrease the odds of him every say that, or anything like it, again. Ever.

_I have spent way too much time thinking about this already._

"...Shibisu would never believe that," Anaak grumbled as Endorsi walked away victoriously a few minutes later.

She was _not_ at that age either.

When Endorise returned, it was with a fresh bucket of hot, soapy water and a random scrub brush she'd found lying around somewhere, somehow – never doubt the resourcefulness of a Jahad's Princess. The Archimedes was divided up into small housing units, designed for groups of people to use, since most people climbed up the Tower in a team; their team had a bathroom, a small kitchen unit, and enough bedrooms for everyone in the team on board the Archimedes... Although unintentionally, Anaak and Ran had somehow managed to turn nearly every other room into a warzone – lucky break. Touching Endorsi's stuff, even on accident, practically equaled a death wish. And it was hard to be certain with that blue boy.

Aside from weapons or her dirty laundry, Anaak hadn't seriously cleaned anything since... Well, forever, basically. "Don't we have room service for this?"

"We do."

...Frankly, Anaak was getting sick of not winning fights.

**I'd never written Endorsi before, so I hope I did okay...**

**Shibisu was originally the one who stepped in at the end, and the title is what it is because of something I'd planned for him to say to Anaak. Something like, "You've got to enjoy the small victories in life, like _not_ punching people in the face just because they annoyed you." Since Shibisu is no longer part of this fanfiction, it's now a short joke. (Kidding.)**

**I also had a list of about twenty different "contests" they went through, but I seemed to have lost it. ^^; The point was to make them sound as humorously petty as possible, so the list consisted mostly of things like seeing who could hold their breath the longest or make the best paper airplane. About the eating contests... if you haven't seen SIU's ToG gossips, it's been said that Ran is picky about food.  
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